I spent twenty years living out west in several "Big Cities" First Dallas, then I was married and had a couple of kids and moved to Portland, Oregon. Then that imploded and my ex moved to Houston with her new husband taking the kids with her, so I moved to Houston, Texas and then finally she took them to Salt Lake City and I followed them there as well. When they graduated from High School I missed my home state of West Virginia so very much and I finally had the opportunity to go home. I wrote this kind of glad that, even though it was against my will, I had been lucky to experience life outside of my home state. I had seen and done things, travelled the world that I would never have done if I had stayed in West Virginia.

Pourin' From The Sky

This is a bit of a political statement and it's basically about not giving up. The talented Sara Golden does vocals  and Scott Stephens does the guitar solo work on this.

So They Don't Have To

I had a difficult relationship with my biological family and when my father died the last thing he ever said to me was instructions to call him by his name instead of "dad". This is probably the most hurtful thing anyone has ever said to me. I was there when he passed and I spent many many years in a bit of an emotional quandary always arguing with him in my head, what I wished I had said, did, whatever, ultimately realizing that I just needed to forgive him for being saying such a callous thing. It's a wound that will never fully heal, but forgiving him is really the only thing that keeps me.

Whaddya Say

The winter of 2020 seemed to last forever. It was cold and gray and the pandemic hit so the world was this strange foreboding place. This features cymbal work on a new cymbal that my kids gave me for Christmas that year.

Winter Walking

I had challenged my self to write from the perspective of a woman and this is what came out. 

From Across the Room

If you have ever been in a verbally abusive relationship, being with someone who has only ugly things to say to you and humiliates you to your face as well as in public, you know what this song is about. The woman in this had been a successful CFO of an international company and was very wealthy. Leaving her was difficult because when I did, I was basically homeless but I couldn't take her verbal abuse and humiliation anymore. 

Details

This is a fantasy song or a compilation of fantasies I've had. The lead guitar break was played by Jeremiah Hatfield of Charleston WV who plays mainly with the local favorites The Parachute Brigade. One fantasy I have about this song is to find enough money to hire a 15 piece string section to redo the strings. Maybe someday, eh?

I Thought You Might

This is a tune I wrote several years back.  I presented it to a bandmate, at the time, Jeremy Walters who inserted the first guitar phrase you hear in the song. Then, the band as most bands do, fizzled out into the dust of the universe and I shelved the song. A short time ago I pulled it out, dusted it off and started reworking it. I rewrote most of the lyrics and then I called up Ryan Kennedy of Mountain Stage fame and asked him to color it up, and color it up he did. freakin' excellent job he did , he did. He added the classical and jumbo acoustic work and just made the tune so full. Thanks Ryan. For this recording I am really proud of how it sounds. The drum mix is some of the best I've ever done and the balance between the vocals and the guitars is really satisfying. I hope ya'll like it.

Perfect Light

If you have ever gone through a divorce, with kids in tow, it's a heartbreaking, terrible situation. This was from a time when our agreement to stay civil and respectable to the needs of the kids over our own personal needs was abandoned and I was relegated to do the ugly ritual of dropping the most precious thing in my life off at a cold airport for a flight across country. I would later move to be near them, but the year that I spent apart from them was the most empty  time of my life. Thanks to Ryan Kennedy, guitarist for Mountain Stage, for adding his guitar playing skills to the mix. His style opened up the composition, filled it out and completed the feel that I needed. Thanks Ryan. 

Bobby Lee Messer

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